Northampton Town Podcast Curle Sacked – Charles, Chessie, Danny and Neil discuss the departure of manager Keith Curle after he was sacked by The Cobblers on 10th February 2021.
Thank you Keith but it was time to go
When the announcement came I don’t think anyone was surprised. There have been calls for Curle to be removed from his position as manager of Northampton Town throughout his tenure but as the final whistle blew on Tuesday night, the noise was deafening.
No longer was it just a select few. The majority of the fanbase had turned.
Some will say that it is about time. There will be arguments for the change to have been made earlier. Before the January transfer window and after the FA Cup defeat to Oxford City are just two occasions where it might have been a justifiable decision.
The fact is though, the Cobblers are now a whole division higher than they were when Curle took over in 2018. He steadied the rocking ship in his first season and then won promotion via the play offs in his second. That achievement should never be forgotten.
No, it didn’t work out in the end. But these things rarely do. Even the club’s most successful manager, Dave Bowen left the club in 1967 after two back to back relegations. He’d previously overseen the club’s meteoric rise up through the leagues to the old First Division.
I’m not suggesting for one minute that we should build a statue or put a bust of Curle on the side of the stadium, but he did more than the majority of people to manage The Cobblers have done.
Right now, it is hard to look past the lack of goals and the hoof it and hope playing style. Unfortunately for Keith, he just couldn’t get the wins that may have appeased the fans enough to stay on as manager.
The style of play has been turgid at times but as long as it was effective and the team picked up points, the majority of fans wouldn’t have called for a change.
As it is, the Cobblers have only won once in their last 11 league games. In those same 11 games, only 5 goals have been scored. Three of them coming in the home win over Gillingham in December. To make it even worse, in the 7 games played in 2021 (including cup matches), the Cobblers have scored just the once.
It is hard to see how the tide was ever going to turn for Curle and so the time is right to make a change and see if someone else can have enough of an impact to keep Northampton in League One.
So thank you Keith but it is unfortunately time to say goodbye.
On a personal note, Keith has been nothing but welcoming to me and the rest of the podcast team. He has given us his time on more than one occasion and has been happy to do so.
At our first meeting, we gifted him a small puzzle. It’s a shame he didn’t get to complete the bigger one he always told us about.
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It’s All Cobblers To Me is a Vibrant Sound Media production for the fans of Northampton Town Football Club.
Charles is the founder and main presenter of the award-winning It’s All Cobblers To Me podcast.
He began the podcast after going self-employed in 2018 as a podcast producer and voiceover artist. The original thought being that It’s All Cobblers To Me would be a place to try out new things – like a test podcast of sorts.
As well as being Cobblers mad, Charles is also a ultramarathon runner and has a blog about that that he tries to keep up to date as often as he can.
